I am not quite sure what advice to give, so let me simply explain my recent experience with a Pro-Ject Essential III turntable:
I found once still in its box at a local junk store, and was able to purchase it for $150. At the time I thought that was a fantastic deal, given the typical $300 new price tag for the turntable (although yes, the Essential has been replaced with the Debut Carbon for their entry-level model.)
The box had been opened at the top, but the table was still in its wrapping, and clearly hadn't been opened (no fingerprints or anything.) I took it home to discover the reason why it had been opened: Someone had grabbed the Tonearm Counterweight from it.
I ordered a replacement 65g counterweight from Music Direct. It took them more than three weeks for it to be delivered, but was eventually delivered, and seems to work fine.
The pluses:
- It is a very nice, clean-looking turntable. Aesthetically it gets nice comments from friends who see it.
- The Ortofon 5e cartridge and stylus sound great. I was previously using a Yamaha P350 with a new Audio Technica AT100e cartridge and stylus, and heard a significant improvement in clarity and overall sound response on the Essential.
- The turntable comes basically set up for you other than having to balance the tonearm and set up the anti-skate.
- The tone arm looks really nice, with a black brushed aluminum finish.
So, that would lead me to say it's a good choice. HOWEVER, there are a couple of significant negatives I've experienced:
- The grounding on the table I received is poor. I have been getting a low-level hum every time the needle touches the record. This isn't particularly distracting when music is being actively played, but is very annoying and audible at the start and end of the record. It's kinda been driving me nuts, so I flipped the table over, unscrewed the plastic boxes containing the wires and such, and have been trying to re-ground the tonearm without success. I also tried re-grounding the power supply, and the overall stereo out cables, without success. At this point I suspect the issue may be reverberation being caused by the power supply's connection to the underside of the turntable, although that conflicts with the evidence of it only happening when the needle touches a record. I also took a ground cable and tried to touch it to the tone arm while it was playing on a spinning end of record, and it did seem to lower the hum. It's got me stumped.
- Looking at the underside of the table and the wires, it's clear they are super-cheap. Tiny thin wires with cheap soldering, and the initial ground is actually punched through a sheet of light cardboard with a metal spray backing on it.
I can take a picture later, but man, does it look cheap. The overall quality of the wires and connections leads me to think that may be the big culprit in my sound problems. Looks good on the outside, just don't look at its inside, ya know?
- I too like it when the tonearm returns at the end of the record, and this one doesn't. It seems minor until you use it for a while, then you really see the benefit of a returning tone arm.
- The mat that comes with the table is a super-cheap felt mat. They didn't even go for rubber.
- The anti-skate is a small piece of fishing line connected to a small weight. You hook a loop of the fishing line to the back of the tone arm, then bring it across a wire that sticks up towards the back of the unit. It works I guess, but just doesn't look good.
- There is no 33 1/3 to 45 switch. In order to switch to play 45s or visa versa, you have to take off the platter and manually move the belt to a different rung on the motor. It's easy to do, but really?
- Finally, the lever that gently lowers the needle to the record has a sticking issue for me. I'll depress it, but it just won't go down enough to touch the needle to the record until I manually push it down. Following that, it seems to work for a while again, but after I give it a rest and come back the next day, it does it again.
So, final thoughts: It looks nice but seems to be super-cheaply made. If it didn't sound clearly better than my previous table, I'd have swapped back to the Yamaha in a heartbeat. All said and done I spent $180 on it, and kinda wish I hadn't. I suspect the Yamaha with the Ortofon cartridge might be my best solution.
